"K-Pop Is More Global Than Ever, Helping South Korea's Music Market Grow Into A 'Power Player" declared Forbes Magazine in an article written by Caitlin Kelley. The article is replete with figures, data and projections about the growth and prosperity of K-Pop music - a genre that shows no signs of slowing down. From Brazil to USA to Indonesia to Mexico to India, K-Pop is gathering millions of new fans and scaling the charts. Yet such expansionist ideology and flatulence deliberately negates the dark side of K-Pop. Such mainstream deify, continuously rolled out by the propaganda mill, is too busy counting numbers and money, wilfully ignoring the exploitation, the robotisation, trauma and the abject labor conditions of K-Pop. The soft power of K-Pop is comparable to the global presence of Samsung, Hyundai and LG. An accelerated, hyper-mechanised protégé of western pop, yet not based on impulse or individuality but upon massive exploitation of teenagers, as marionettes inside a culture of dispensability. The economy of K-Pop clearly has a human cost, and an explicit relationship with a patriarchal society of late-capitalism. This article attempts to focus on K-Pop beyond it's knockout appearance, economic power and manufactured euphoria. How the towering success of K-Pop is structured upon servitude, devotion, regimentation and the collective rhapsody of slaves!
The unwritten but utmost rule in K-pop is that idols must give up on having a love life if they want to be successful. Being single makes them appear more accessible to their fans. The theory goes to promise that more devoted fans, will equate to more fame and income. This is also why K-pop groups are either all-male or all-female, so fans don't suspect band members are dating each other. South-Korean society, much like it's counterpart in the North, is but deeply patriarchal - generations on, South-Korean democracy and cultural institutions failed to provide equal space and opportunity for girls, instead remained preoccupied with beauty, appeal and objectification, thus perpetuating gender inequality. Even less is the space for transgender South-Koreans at the top of the K-Pop celebrity heap. If certain forms of popular music can be viewed as empowering, the case of K-Pop seems the opposite. About 85% of K-Pop idols remain within the grip of three principle agencies, all based in South Korea - S.M Entertainment, The YG Group and JYP Entertainment. "A typical contract between record companies and their stars involves the company paying for the expenses of booking concert venues, traveling, and food, and expecting them to be offset by the earnings. But if the expenses end up being more than the earnings, then stars have to pay them back..." states an Insider Magazine article recently. For most K-Pop artists exiting the genre or breaking the innate shackles of the business is not an option. Slavery or Bankruptcy? Trapped inside the infinite cycle of boom and bust. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, K-pop is "shifting from 'potential' to 'power player' in the global music industry". The stories of exploitation, suicides, anorexia, sexism, rape and sheer exhaustion is yet unable to deter the global proliferation and hysteric appeal of K-Pop.
Exposing K-Pop industry’s insidious problems has been tough, largely because the perpetrators literally own the singers. A fact most often ignored by the fans, numbering close to 100 million worldwide. Are they morally bankrupt or plain zombies at the receiving end of mass culture? K-Pop is tacit slavery, intrinsically linked to late-capitalism. As the french philosopher Jean Baudrillard explained in his analysis of consumerism and society - that "Commodities and spectacles circulating in a market, gain their significance not because of their inherent qualities but the ability to create relationships amongst each other - till a point no reality exists, without the products and the production". Simply put, K-Pop exists as long as it's profitable and feeding public demand. It's obvious that public demand is generated and regulated by the music industry. K-Pop idols are essentially products, copy-pasted along a time-line, pointing to a 'post-human condition'. What makes K-pop different from western pop is that the artists are actually employees. The condition of a K-Pop idol is similar to a fashion model or an industrial worker - facing exploitation and degradation - the bulwarks of growth and profit. K-Pop's biggest cash-cow BTS, were granted their first vacation in 6 years. The rumour mills speak of the band's current worth at about 3 billion dollars. Between 2008 - 2018, there were 32 suicide cases of K-Pop idols including some K-Drama stars. During the same span, K-Pop mania grew exponentially in many parts of the world. Perhaps such an entertainment industry stems from a profoundly crisis prone society. K-Pop as a product of late-capitalism, is invested in utmost control, over every aspect of competition, production, distribution and payoff. In the near future, we imagine the finality of K-Pop, where the teenagers are eventually replaced by advanced hyper-sexualised robots, codified to perform exactly what the market demands. Thus abolishing teen slavery, and perhaps destroying an economy based on human sacrifice.
To understand K-Pop in a social and cultural context, we must take a slight detour - a quick look at South-Korea's history. The Korean peninsula had been bombed, wrecked and eventually divided by the opposing forces, a partition predicated by war between capitalism and communism. Millions of civilians died or were permanently displaced. For decades, ruthless dictators ruled both sides of Korea. Till the early-1980s, South-Korea was a proxy-state of the U.S. Rebuilt and industrialised with wanton american aid, fortified by military presence and cultural indoctrination. An opposing regime of indoctrination and vicious servitude would seal the fate of North Korea, as the indigent dictatorial brother of the south. The two nations seemingly opposite, yet de facto patriarchal, militaristic and driven by obedience. The rise in South Korean wealth, living standards, media, technology and very weak labour rights gave way to a hyper-competitive 'society of control'. The rise of video and television based propaganda, in sync with the advent of globalisation in the early 1990s, created the prototype of South Korean pop music, almost a decade after the rise and fall of 'Jeipoppu : J-Pop' from Japan. The formation of K-Pop was not an artist based movement, nor a cultural deviation but an outcome of rigorous production control and marketing by a few South-Korean agencies. The hierarchical assembly line, made of directors, producers, choreographers, stylists, lyricists and session musicians prefabricate the image and sound of K-Pop, while the singers 'do exactly as planned'. A successful K-Pop artist is as functional and devoid of individuality as a factory worker assembling laptops, but the former plays with stardom for a short while, and the latter exists on very little for a long time. Both can be driven to depression and suicide, which is alarmingly high in South Korean society. "K-Pop relies heavily on appearance, choreography and collective obedience, outside of which there is virtually no space to create individual presence. The industry is controlled by an overwhelming majority of men, mostly in their 50s. Behind the music, there is abundant pain and hidden abuse" states Ju Oak Kim, PhD, assistant professor at Texas A&M University.
The stars of K-Pop have no control over song-writing, instrumentation and the eventual visual aesthetics of the genre. The catatonic extravaganza or hyper-sexualised persuasion seen in K-Pop videos is by no means the outcome of a creative process, rather a carefully vetted marketing format. The earliest K-pop groups, such as Seo Taiji and Boys, were a prototype based on the 'boy band mania' of New Kids On The Block, Boys To Men and Backstreet Boys. No irony, that these boys, be they South-Korean, British or American, did not write the lyrics, nor composed any of the music. They did not negotiate the share of the profits nor plan their career paths. The female stars of K-Pop would face an even tougher environment, and an uglier fate as the genre started to spill out of it's earlier confinements. "Last October, K-pop singer Goo Hara took to Instagram and completely broke down. She was mourning the loss of fellow K-pop star Sulli, a former member of the wildly popular girl group f(x). Sulli had died by suicide, found the day before by her manager, no note left behind. Last seen alive, in her livestream, Hara’s tear-stained face is swollen with grief." states an article in the Cosmopolitan, offering insight into the traumatic and suicidal legacy of K-Pop. Gruelling gym routines, restrictive diets, and no dating - the three principle tenets that the girls and boys aspiring to become stars of K-Pop must obey.
Hyper-competition, immense physical and psychological pressure and massive online vanity adds up to a dense toxic undercurrent of this otherwise hysteric, dancing and loving spectacle. The involved dehumanisation in the making of K-Pop stars is somewhat similar to what we read and see about rookies becoming soldiers inside military barracks. "Gym, studio, bedroom, gym... that's my life circle. We are now preparing for our new album and are so busy." said Ho Ryeong, one of the band members of Great Guys, a K-Pop act with nine members. November 2019, two K-pop stars were jailed for raping a drunk, unconscious woman in a bar. Such brutality from cute boys barely exposes the industry's lurid underbelly. The amount of plastic surgery and anti-depressants, call it K-Pop maintenance goes unaccounted for and the incidents of violence against female K-Pop idols mostly hushed-up. K-Pop and pro-anorexia are best friends!
The stars of K-Pop have no control over song-writing, instrumentation and the eventual visual aesthetics of the genre. The catatonic extravaganza or hyper-sexualised persuasion seen in K-Pop videos is by no means the outcome of a creative process, rather a carefully vetted marketing format. The earliest K-pop groups, such as Seo Taiji and Boys, were a prototype based on the 'boy band mania' of New Kids On The Block, Boys To Men and Backstreet Boys. No irony, that these boys, be they South-Korean, British or American, did not write the lyrics, nor composed any of the music. They did not negotiate the share of the profits nor plan their career paths. The female stars of K-Pop would face an even tougher environment, and an uglier fate as the genre started to spill out of it's earlier confinements. "Last October, K-pop singer Goo Hara took to Instagram and completely broke down. She was mourning the loss of fellow K-pop star Sulli, a former member of the wildly popular girl group f(x). Sulli had died by suicide, found the day before by her manager, no note left behind. Last seen alive, in her livestream, Hara’s tear-stained face is swollen with grief." states an article in the Cosmopolitan, offering insight into the traumatic and suicidal legacy of K-Pop. Gruelling gym routines, restrictive diets, and no dating - the three principle tenets that the girls and boys aspiring to become stars of K-Pop must obey.
Hyper-competition, immense physical and psychological pressure and massive online vanity adds up to a dense toxic undercurrent of this otherwise hysteric, dancing and loving spectacle. The involved dehumanisation in the making of K-Pop stars is somewhat similar to what we read and see about rookies becoming soldiers inside military barracks. "Gym, studio, bedroom, gym... that's my life circle. We are now preparing for our new album and are so busy." said Ho Ryeong, one of the band members of Great Guys, a K-Pop act with nine members. November 2019, two K-pop stars were jailed for raping a drunk, unconscious woman in a bar. Such brutality from cute boys barely exposes the industry's lurid underbelly. The amount of plastic surgery and anti-depressants, call it K-Pop maintenance goes unaccounted for and the incidents of violence against female K-Pop idols mostly hushed-up. K-Pop and pro-anorexia are best friends!
Exposing K-Pop industry’s insidious problems has been tough, largely because the perpetrators literally own the singers. A fact most often ignored by the fans, numbering close to 100 million worldwide. Are they morally bankrupt or plain zombies at the receiving end of mass culture? K-Pop is tacit slavery, intrinsically linked to late-capitalism. As the french philosopher Jean Baudrillard explained in his analysis of consumerism and society - that "Commodities and spectacles circulating in a market, gain their significance not because of their inherent qualities but the ability to create relationships amongst each other - till a point no reality exists, without the products and the production". Simply put, K-Pop exists as long as it's profitable and feeding public demand. It's obvious that public demand is generated and regulated by the music industry. K-Pop idols are essentially products, copy-pasted along a time-line, pointing to a 'post-human condition'. What makes K-pop different from western pop is that the artists are actually employees. The condition of a K-Pop idol is similar to a fashion model or an industrial worker - facing exploitation and degradation - the bulwarks of growth and profit. K-Pop's biggest cash-cow BTS, were granted their first vacation in 6 years. The rumour mills speak of the band's current worth at about 3 billion dollars. Between 2008 - 2018, there were 32 suicide cases of K-Pop idols including some K-Drama stars. During the same span, K-Pop mania grew exponentially in many parts of the world. Perhaps such an entertainment industry stems from a profoundly crisis prone society. K-Pop as a product of late-capitalism, is invested in utmost control, over every aspect of competition, production, distribution and payoff. In the near future, we imagine the finality of K-Pop, where the teenagers are eventually replaced by advanced hyper-sexualised robots, codified to perform exactly what the market demands. Thus abolishing teen slavery, and perhaps destroying an economy based on human sacrifice.
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